August 7.  We left home around 5:30am and took Highway 680 to Highway 4 and then exited onto Alhambra and followed it for several miles to the downtown area.  Booths were located along 5 blocks of Main Street and 4 side streets.  We drove down to Escobar and followed it to Ferry St. where we found space#70, the second one from the end.

 

THE SET UP.  We unloaded our van and began setting up around 6:30am and took until 9:00 even though the show actually started at 8:00am.  Kind of overcast during the early part of the morning but the sun broke through the clouds and it was mild throughout the day with temps perhaps in the 70s.  There was an occasional gust of wind that shook the canopy and knock off some hats that I had displayed on the outside.

 

I TOOK A STROLL down Main St. and found that there were mostly 'antique' dealers along the 5 blocks with an occasional regular vendor mixed it.  Don't forget that this event is advertised as being 'antique' oriented and you probably shouldn't expect overwhelming sales in this type of event.

 

THERE WAS A MIX OF actual antique dealer's along with mom's and pop's dragging the old memorabilia and other old stuff from their houses on down here to this semi-annual event.  I guess that they claim that this is one of the larger 'antique shows' in Northern California.  People who go to these things are looking for antiques or other other memorabilia and are usually not interested in newer items.  Vendor's like myself, do not typically expect huge sales at these kind of events.

 

 

I WAS ON A SIDE STREET and traffic flow was substantially less than that on Main Street.  People walked down the street and pretty much just turned around and walked back.  This is the first time that I had ever seen booths located on only one side of the street.  There just wasn't enough room for a second row or to put them in quads.  I am thankful for that because when you don't have enough room to get two lanes of vehicles through during a set up or take down things can get mighty tough getting around.  So, in reality the five blocks of booths on Main Street was equivalent to 2 1/2 blocks and the four side streets with one bock on each side was equivalent to another 4 blocks.  Thus the faire was about 6 1/2 blocks long. 

 

WITH A SET UP LIKE THIS, I really couldn't picture a lot of people walking down each and every side street, thus poor traffic flow down the side streets, namely the street that we were on.

 

URINE NATION WEEKLY REPORT.  I noticed a number of dogs taking their owners out for walks during the morning.  But during the afternoon, it looks like the dogs stayed home.  Maybe they were having a Lassie Marathon or something.  No wet spots near my booth.  Probably were watching the world premiere of Barkin' Bitches.

 

I'D SAY THAT the organizer's of this event did a pretty smooth job with this event.  Booth fees are reasonable and the vendor spaces were large.  No problem finding your space - just follow the map. This show was mainly a fill-in for myself.  Kind of difficult setting up for just one day.

 

THERE WERE NO FOOD BOOTHS around.  Well, actually I did see a couple at the end of one of the streets.  From what I heard, the local restaurants are not in favor of having food booths at these events.  There is a McDonalds located along Main Street that is closed on weekends.  Yes, it is closed and only open during the week.  That's what I call 'rolling up the streets' on Fridays.  Not much happening except when the courts are in session.  About a year ago, a friend and I were looking at a store to rent there that was located on a corner.  We checked around and found out that the streets were completely dead on weekends.  The only time there was business (restaurants especially) was during the noon hours when people came out of the court house to get something to eat.  I noticed that the store still has not been rented.

 

WHAT DID I DO FOR FOOD?  On one of my porta-pottie trips I spotted a small restaurant along the way.  During the early afternoon, I took a trip over there and picked up a BLT for myself and a salad for my wife.  The BLT was okay, nothing really great.  I had seen a restaurant on Main Street with a BLT which included Avocado and that sounded good but it was $8.75 and with the kind of money I am making at these shows, there's just no way I'll pay that much for a sandwich.  The best BLT I ever had was in San Juan Bautista at the Chicken Festival last year.  I had never had a BLT with avocado on it until then and it was absolutely delicious.